“Since fire incident victims can’t be rehabilitated in days and weeks lonely by the Government during the chilly months of winter, the onus of mitigating the sufferings of fire incident victims also lies on the civil society groups”.
Though frequency of fire incidents rises unprecedentedly during chilly months of winter in Kashmir obviously due to carelessness shown by people in using the heating appliances run on electricity and LPG cylinders both in residential houses and as well as at work places but unfortunately neither the Government nor the civil society groups make people aware about the fire safety practices and procedures which could hopefully reduce the unprecedented rise in fire incidents during chilly months of winter in Kashmir Valley. Knowing that fire incident victims can’t be rehabilitated in days and weeks lonely by the Government during the chilly months of winter, the onus of mitigating the sufferings of fire incident victims also lies on the civil society groups. While the concerns of the people are growing over the delay in the announcement and implementation of a fire safety management policy in Jammu & Kashmir the people themselves are also responsible for not taking the precautions which could reduce the scope for occurrence and re-occurrence of fire incidents day in and day out during chilly months of winter in Kashmir Valley. Knowing all about the carelessness of the people which results in the occurrence and re-occurrence of fire incidents day in and day out during chilly months of winter in Kashmir the bigger responsibility on launch of fire safety awareness campaign lies on Fire & Emergency Services Department of the Jammu & Kashmir Government as fire incidents destroys and damages not only private properties but also public properties including school buildings and Government offices. Fire incidents don’t just cause losses of crores of rupees to the standing public and private properties across Kashmir but also sometimes results in the loss of precious human lives as a woman died in a very recent LPG cylinder leakage incident in Lalbazar area of Srinagar city.
“While the onus of the round the clock readiness of the fire fighting squads of the Fire & Emergency Service Stations for controlling the fire incidents in the areas of their own jurisdiction lies on the Director Fire & Emergency Services Department, the responsibility of conducting fire safety awareness programs lies equally on the civil society groups, the people and the Fire & Emergency Services Department. True is that precautions would surely reduce the people but people won’t take precautions unless and until they are not made aware about the practices and procedures of fire safety management. The way out henceforth is – fire safety awareness in Jammu & Kashmir”.
Since winter has advanced this year by a couple of weeks and an unprecedented rise has also been noticed in the frequency of the occurrence and non-occurrence of fire incidents in different parts of Kashmir Valley, a collective response from the Government, civil society members and the people themselves alone can reduced the rise in fire incidents during winter in Kashmir. While experiences show that hotels and houses boats are more vulnerable to fire incidents than the houses in the residential colonies of cities, towns and villages, the installation of fire extinguishers at either the commercial complexes or the Government owned building is not being made mandatory by the Fire & Emergency Services Department. While the onus of the round the clock readiness of the fire fighting squads of the Fire & Emergency Service Stations for controlling the fire incidents in the areas of their own jurisdiction lies on the Director Fire & Emergency Services Department, the responsibility of conducting fire safety awareness programs lies equally on the civil society groups, the people and the Fire & Emergency Services Department. True is that precautions would surely reduce the people but people won’t take precautions unless and until they are not made aware about the practices and procedures of fire safety management. The way out henceforth is – fire safety awareness in Jammu & Kashmir.
